


e=mc2

by KirmtheKirm



Category: Baldi's Basics (Video Game)
Genre: sideplot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26136991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirmtheKirm/pseuds/KirmtheKirm
Summary: Two children are seemingly ▇▇▇▇▇ in attending here school.__Eric and Emma fic detailing stuff that should be detailed in regards to OCs. Long time coming. Will probably have a handful of chapters down the line.Friend's fic:hereBlog:here
Kudos: 3





	1. WELCOME

For one moment, he didn't exist. The next? He was simply there.

The small form of a child stood, his eyes blinking slowly open. He was as simple and flat as everything around him. A round head, a somewhat rectangular body, simple rectangle legs, and arms that honestly looked like they were glued on hap-haphazardly. A very small clump of dark brown hair was also seemingly placed on his head. His eyes squinted, obscured by round glasses that had a large, blue tint to them. It felt like he had been sleeping for ages, his body seemingly waking up in an instant as he --

"Oh. Hi. Welcome to my schoolhouse!"

\--He was unable to properly absorb his surroundings when he looked up at the figure before him. Much taller, probably even over twice his height, stood a... Hm. A man? His mind was fuzzy, as the one who greeted him remained silent, simply staring right through him. The child's hand instinctively went to adjust his glasses. Where was he? Who was he? Who was this... Man in front of him? The others neon green shirt almost burned his eyes. It took him a solid minute to get his bearings, but when he did, he remembered one thing that was fact.

His name is Eric.

That was the only ounce of context he had gotten, at least for himself. Eric finally looked around, up and down, and down himself. He was wearing a blue shirt with seemingly no sleeves, the text 'BOY' plastered onto it. His legs were just an odd purplish color, seemingly no shoes or anything. He remained quiet for a moment, before realizing. Oh, right, someone was in front of him. He gasped, fumbling for words, his tongue finally seeming to click into place.

"H-- Huh? _Schoolhouse..._ Where-- Who are you?"

Eric waited for a response, but got none. Baldi stood there, not saying another word. The others eyes remained on Eric, with seemingly no specific emotion. Eric stumbled a bit, his legs finally deciding to do something as he decided to walk around. He noticed a few yellow doors off to the side. Maybe someone else could give him answers, or. At least their name. He placed a hand on the door, only to hear Baldi again--

"You need to collect two notebooks before you can use these doors."

The voice sounded like it didn't come from Baldi, but from. Around him. It was genuinely hard to pinpoint it. But... Notebooks? He mouthed the word, parroting it to himself as he returned to Baldi, before casually going past him. Baldi seemed to follow his every move with those eyes of his. Eric took note of a poster off to the side as he was considering entering a classroom. A simple blue poster with very basic text on it.

**'School Rules:  
**When you follow the school rules:

No Running  
No entering faculty  
No Bullying  
No Drinking  
No escaping detention  
No fourth wall breaks'

The boy let out a small audible 'huh' when he finished reading them. Was he attending school? He had to be, why else was he in a schoolhouse with very clear rules. Was this guy staring at him his teacher? Eric had to be scatterbrained if he didn't know his own teacher's name, or why he was here. He felt kind of stupid as he entered the blue door to the left that simply had '99' to label it, and blinked. A classroom, with oddly floating papers and pens on the desk with a chalkboard and... Floating notebook. is that one of the notebooks Eric needed? Had to be, basic deduction skills are fantastic. Eric reached out for the notebook, but the moment he made contact with it, he was suddenly holding an odd device in his hands, in a completely black area, unable to move. Panic began to settle in when he heard the others voice again, noticing the upper torso of the man on the side of the screen, flapping his lips in a manner that did not match his words.

"Now it's time for everyone's favorite subject... Math! Answer these three answers correctly, and you might get something special! Just type the correct answer in the empty box! Press the ENTER key on your keyboard when you think you have the right answer!"

_Enter key?_ **Keyboard?** Eric's pupils shook as he stared at the screen, as the man continued, completely undeterred by Eric's very visible confusion and general distress.

"Problem one. Two. Plus. Five. Equals?"

The boy stood there, trying to process what was happening as the repetitive loop of music began to play, and he very quickly figured out how to type out '7' and then pressing the supposed 'ENTER' key.

"Wow! You're incredibleee!" The man said, his expression not changing much as he began to read the next problem in an odd manner. Eric seemed to calm down when he was complimented, the positive affirmation, no matter how odd, was nice. He was **safe.** And _fine._ Just answer some math questions. Eric knew how to do this, it was just simple addition and subtraction. When he correcly answered each question, a simple phrase popped up on the 'Thinkpad' as Baldi flapped his lips with droning affirmation.

**WOW! YOU EXIST!**

Eric was suddenly back to where he was, the notebook nowhere to be seen. Yet somehow, he knew he had it on him. 1/7. There were seven of them? How did he know that...

"You did great!" He heard Baldi, right outside of the door. "Come here and get your prize-- A shiny quarter! Just click on it with the left mouse button to pick it up!"

Despite it being a small offer with the weird 'left click' dialogue, the fact that Eric was being rewarded made him feel better about the very confusing situation. He went outside the door to see a quarter, simply floating there like the objects he saw in the classroom. He very quietly took it, as it disappeared like the notebook, before the boy managed a small smile.

"Thank you, uh... Are you my teacher? You are, right?" He managed, but Baldi did not give him an answer. He kept staring at Eric, which... Confused him. Why was he so talkative unless someone asked him something? Eric decided not to complain, Baldi was the teacher here. There was certainly someone outside of those doors that could talk to him. Just one more notebook. He entered the classroom parallel to the other, as it basically mirrored it. The only differences Eric could notice was what was written on the chalkboard and the color of the notebook. Just keep going, dwelling on the small details would simply be stalling.

Everything went as usual, Baldi flapping his lips, Eric getting the first two questions right... But. The last question was not anything Eric was prepared for. He let out a slightly startled noise when the jumble of characters appeared on the thinkpad, as Baldi read it out.

"Problem three! ▇▇▇▇▇▇ plus. ▇▇▇▇▇▇ times. ▇▇▇▇▇▇ equals?"

Eric winced, as nothing but a terrible, loud static-like noise came from Baldi rather than the numbers. He didn't want to get this wrong, but he literally couldn't read that. Even if he could, this was a high step up from the last questions that were simply basic addition and subtraction. Multiplication wasn't even a factor. The boy already had the feeling that his 'teacher' would not respond if he said that he couldn't read the question, so Eric made a shot in the dark and typed in several 9's, the largest number he could type in reasonably.

**I HEAR EVERY DOOR YOU OPEN**

The repetitive music stopped playing, dead silence filling the area as Baldi's simple expression warped, his smile slowly shifting to a frown, his eyebrows lowering as Eric stared, that confusion and fear settling right back in. It was silly, really, seeing this weird little bald man suddenly get mad, but it filled Eric with dread. It was such an abrupt change, he hadn't realized he had been booted back into the classroom until he had heard a distant slap. What was that? 2/7. He knew that, but when he exited the classroom, Baldi was no longer there. That slapping noise began to get louder, as Eric realized he could finally go through the yellow doors. He was about to run, to kind of see what was going on, but he remembered the rules. Didn't want to be a bad student now, did he? He walked through the doors as the slapping noise persisted behind him, but he made no glances as he walked through the halls, looking around the simple lockers and... A window into a room. He glanced into it, blinking at the portraits. His attention quickly snapped to the one of his supposed teacher-- Baldi. Baldi was his name. At least he knew that now.

"Baldi?" He said, quietly, as the slapping noise echoed out. Eric finally looked behind him and

Loud. **Loud loud loud.** He couldn't scream. He was just ~~gone~~. Baldi had easily caught up with him, sitting there like a duck. It was nothing, perhaps the shortest 'chase' Baldi had in a while. There was absolutely no emotion from the 'man' as he returned to his usual standing place, any anger present completely gone, as if he hadn't even moved from that spot at all.

Soon, there was another.

She was much faster to get her bearings compared to Eric before her. She grumbled, as Baldi began his usual introductory spiel, as he did with everyone who had entered. Eric was different, yet the same. Eric had features. So did this other student. Yet Baldi treated them as anyone who had entered the schoolhouse. The girl had blonde-- Well, blonde was pushing it, bright yellow hair that was put into a ponytail, wearing a small purplish dress shirt with two little blue legs peeking out of the bottom. She was much like Eric, given no context and only knowing one thing that was true.

Her name is Emma.

"What-- Dude, I just got here, slow down," Emma grumbled, clearly already unamused by the bald man's antics. "Where am I. Who are you." She demanded, clearly not as passive as Eric.

She also did not get any answers. Baldi stared right through her, unphased.

"Hello? Hello??? Ugh, whatever," She spat, before stomping past him, taking one glance at the 'rules' poster before blowing a raspberry at it. Practically barging into a classroom, she blinked. "Hey, weirdo, why are your school supplies floating? How are people supposed to write?" No response. Emma decided to just go for the notebook in the back to try to find any sort of clues on what the hell to do, but she was also booted to the Thinkpad area. Emma didn't react with fear. She reacted with flat out angry annoyance, speaking over Baldi as he explained and began to read out the question, "HEY, I didn't sign up for this, math is fffffffffflipping stupid!" She spat again, but Baldi remained unphased. She stared at the question with anger, not responding as the girl begrudgingly answered the first question right. Before her attention span shortened and she got both questions wrong immediately after in quick succession, causing the same message that met the boy before her and the same reaction from Baldi.

"Oh. Oh getting questions--" She was cut off by being back in the classroom. "So getting questions wrong makes you mad? Whatta baby." Emma tsked. She heard a distant slapping noise, her face scrunching up when she realized that Baldi wasn't standing outside anymore. Lunch break? She tried to push on the doors, ignoring the second classroom,

"You need to collect two notebooks to open these doors." Baldi's voice echoed out, again, not coming from any specific source. Emma made a horse noise with her mouth.

"Alright, fine, I'll fail another notebook for you, whoever you are." Emma said, content with getting more answers wrong to spite the weirdo she literally just met. So, she did just that, Baldi not present in the Thinkpad as she got every answer wrong. The distant slaps seemed to increase in number as she casually ran outside, through the doors, speeding down the hallways. She had to get answers, she didn't like to be left in the dark to do math problems. She opened several doors, annoyed at the presence of more notebooks. Emma continued to run around, only stopping to catch her breath as she looked behind her. The source of the new noise-- Baldi. He approached her, moving with each ruler slap. Emma seemed bemused, clearly already enjoying the fact that this moron wasn't wearing a smile.

"You gonna do something with that ruler? Eh? I'm so scared of the man who I have like, a bazillion more hair strands then. What are you gonna do, slap m--"

**Loud.** Her smugness was immediately cut off as Baldi closed the distance before she could finish her sentence. Just like the one before her, she was just. Gone.

And just like before, like always. Baldi returned to his default place. In front of the doors to Here School, waiting for the next student. It was simply another day of dealing with students. A failure was a failure, no matter how different they were from the others.


	2. TRY AGAIN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet.

Darkness-- No. It was just black. The color black, all around, mimicking darkness at first glance.

Emma blinked, her body slowly sitting upright as she let out a puzzled groan. What had just happened? For a second she had thought she was... No. That weird bald idiot wouldn't do that to a kid. Maybe this was all just a weird dream. The girl angrily scrambled up, stumbling around before yelling out, clearly enraged by this predicament. She just wanted answers, but she clearly had no way of getting them.

"WHAT!? _WHY?_ " She screamed to nobody, basically throwing a temper tantrum in a void-like space. "GET BACK HERE, YOU SINGLE HAIRED **JERK!** YOU CAN'T JUST PUT ME HERE!"

She breathed heavily, running around the empty space for a while. Eventually, she saw a speck. It basically was the only other thing she could see in the blackness, so she went towards it, hoping it was some kind of exit, even a note that said 'lol you're screwed' would at least give her some kind of answer. In the midst of her running though, she finally heard something other than her own small footsteps. Emma stopped in her tracks, trying to pin down where the noise came from. It was distant and unclear, but when she finally headed in the right direction... It sounded like... Whimpering? It was a genuinely pathetic noise, as Emma noticed a different colored speck, and approached with. Little to no caution.

"HEY! Who are--"

" ** _AAA!_** " The other figure yelped, scrambling backwards ever so slightly, his small form shaking as he turned towards Emma. Eric's eyes, full of fear, looked at the other, tears streaming down his face. There was no doubt about it, he was absolutely terrified out of his mind compared to Emma.

Emma stood there, any possible hostility lost as her eyes, hidden behind thick sunglasses, stared at the other. She... She didn't know this kid. Yet something within her told her that she did. But how? Maybe it was just the fact that this kid had clearly cried his eyes out that made her stop. Yeah. That had to be it. Eric's breathing was heavy, looking Emma up and down. Who was she? Why was she here with him? Thousands of questions flew through his mind as he sniffled, trying to stand upright. The two seemed to quietly notice the odd similarities between each other. The color pallets, the shirts with the simple 'BOY' and 'GAL' paralleling each other, even wearing glasses... It had to be some super odd coincidence. 

"W... I." Eric began to speak, his voice clearly strained by emotion. "I'... I'm E-Eric." He looked down, rubbing his arm. "Did... Did Baldi do... **That...** " A shudder, "T-T-To you, too?"

"Is _that_ his name?" Emma finally replied, as she would've laughed at the very fitting name, but. This kid was clearly not in the mood to have someone laughing and heckling around him. "Well, I'm Emma. And yeah, he just came right at me, not explaining anything. Got mad when I got a bunch of problems wrong..."

"You got a bunch of them wrong?" Eric said, clearly confused. "I... I only got the last question wrong... Because it was just a jumble of... Numbers." He said, dejectedly.

"Well, yeah. Math is kind of dumb, I didn't ask to be here." Emma practically audibly rolled her eyes, as she closed the distance between the two, hesitance still present in those little eyes of his, "I don't even know how I got here! I just like... Appeared in front of that guy and he didn't answer any of my questions! What a weirdo."

"I don't... Know why I'm here, either." Eric said, taking his glasses off to wipe the teary fog from them. Emma was appalled by how small Eric's eyes were, they were basically just very tiny squares. Pixels, basically. "All I remembered was my name. And I thought Baldi was my teacher, and I was attending school. I don't know..." Another sniffle, as he put his glasses back on.

"...You too?" Emma said, in awe of how similar their situations were. "I mean, I wouldn't go to school willingly, especially if a teacher does that. Did you see anyone else around?"

"Wasn't able to... I looked into a room and saw a bunch of these posters of people, like Baldi, but..." Eric got visibly upset, "...He just... Came up behind me and sent me here... I don't..." He began to choke up, "Understand why he'd do that... He was complimenting me, gave me a quarter, and then I just..."

The girl genuinely didn't see it as a big deal. They were both still alive, at least in some sense, why was Eric getting so... Emotional over this bald guy who literally sent them to... Well, what seemed like the void? She would've usually said something along the lines of 'get over it, crybaby', but something internally told her that she needed Eric in some way. It wasn't for a selfish reason, no, she just met this kid here, but. Emma looked around, not seeing any other movement, not hearing any other noise outside of Eric's clear distress. Was it really just him and her? Emma sighed, before she decided to quickly take Eric's hand and drag him along, much to his surprise, snapping out of the general sadness.

"Wh... Where are you--" Eric wiped some seemingly non-existent snot from his... Well, non-existent nose, as Emma continued off,

"We're going to figure out what's going on here." Emma said, firmly. "If we don't find an exit, we better find at least something."

Eric fell silent, but clearly willing to follow Emma as she ran. But she quickly noticed something,

"Dude, you can run, right?" She tried not to sound like it, but there was vague hints of annoyance in her tone.

"Oh. Right... Sorry, we're not in the halls. Right." The boy quietly replied, as he began to run with her as she lead the way.

They didn't lose stamina here, for some reason, they could run for what seemed like eternity, as Emma ran back in the general direction of the speck she saw before, before she heard Eric. Suddenly, and abruptly, the black of the void began to fade into a much... Brighter color. Bright blue. Low quality clouds suddenly popped into view, as Emma and Eric looked in awe. There was more to this place, thankfully, as they continued to run. Suddenly, they saw it. The Schoolhouse. But not Like it should've been. It was the exterior of the Schoolhouse, walls surrounding it in the blue void. They couldn't look inside it, but those were the walls they were very vaguely familiar with.

"What... What is g-going on..?" Eric said, placing a hand on the wall. There was a pause, as Emma immediately pressed the side of her head to the wall, pressing her hands against it as she tried to listen.

"I hear... Whistling?" She quietly murmured, focusing as she smacked her hands on the wall. "How are we supposed to get back in there? We can get on Baldi like a tag team or something!"

"...The school rules said no breaking the f-fourth wall..." The boy said, mostly to himself, "Is this the fourth wall?"

"Wh. Dude, school rules? You-- Did you literally follow the rules while that weirdo was after you?" Emma's baffled tone returned.

"Y... Yeah, I didn't want to s-seem like a bad kid." Eric frowned. "School seems... Important."

"Yeah, important when it's not full of wackos! That whistling HAS to be Baldi. He's mocking us. I'll beat him up for sending us here." She hissed through grit teeth, as Eric dejectedly looked off to the side.

"There has to be a reason why he's doing this..." He was trying to find logic in it all, "That last question is impossible, though, at least right now... If only I could get a second chance..."

Emma looked through Eric for a second, as he began to feel around the wall, and began to circle around it with one hand, trying to find some sort of opening. The girl huffed, deciding that she'd follow him, now. As they circled, they found a picket fence-like exterior instead of a wall, but even those were as unmovable as the bricks. What seemed like hours of circling got them very little progress, as Eric suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at the wall. Even if the two were stacked on top of each other, they were simply too small to even try to look over the wall and see if there was a ceiling, or they could look inside and see what was going on. Eric just decided to. Sit down, as Emma put her hands on her hips.

"Well, is this our fate? Being subjected to brick walls?" She paced back and forth, grumbling. "Look, we should keep running around, to see if there's anything else."

"...We probably should, but. I'm pretty tired." Eric said, quietly. Emma smacked her lips, realizing that, oh yeah. This kid was crying his eyes out just a while ago. 

"Fine. I'll go alone. I'll be back." Emma turned, but noticed Eric's expression become immediately tense. "...What."

"W... Well. I don't know. I uhm. D-Don't want to be alone?" The boy replied, unable to keep proper eye contact with Emma. "I just. I. Well. I guess I'm just glad there's someone here with me. I don't know what I'd do if... I was. A-Alone, after that." Eric frowned, seemingly disappointed at himself. He felt greedy. He knew he wasn't inclined to Emma's effort at all, yet she did it, no matter how brash her words were. He was expecting her to just leave, but blinked as she just sat down next to him, eyebrows raised.

"No, you're good, dude." Emma said. "I getcha. I'm glad I got someone to talk to here, I would be pretty darn bored if I didn't." She made sure her glasses were on right. "We can chill."

"...Thank you, E-Emma." Eric managed a small smile, which. Honestly, was all of the convincing Emma needed, as Eric leaned back, against the wall, beginning to doze off. Emma simply looked off into the blueness, knowing only one thing for certain. It was in her gut, and she had a goal. It was a vague feeling, as if it was simply what she was made to do.

**Keep Eric safe.**


End file.
